A Game of Unseen Things
by iammesaw
Summary: A messed up Jutsu, an understanding friend, and forces he can not control lead a Young Naruto down a path that will shape his future, like no other before him. Heavy AU much Darker than normal. Pairings are mostly decided but I will have a poll for some. I do not Own Naruto or any Characters they belong to their original owner.
1. Authors Note

This is an Authors Note/Warning. This is going to be a crazy ride as this is my first story. I have always wanted to write one and I have been cultivating ideas for months. This will be a heavy AU with some ideas taken from Cannon. I will warn you now I will be picking my own ages for the generations as I feel some characters should be older and some characters work better as younger for my story. If the Ages conflict with something Tough. If you do not like it that is your problem. If you just blatantly Flame my story to be rude I will ignore you.

Constructive criticism is always nice though.

I hope this story will be truly unique as I have read nearly every story on this site in the Naruto section 100,000 words + mostly.

Now for some disclaimers.

I do not own Naruto or any Copyrighted material in this Authors note or the Subsequent chapters. Any characters, likeness, or material they own belongs to the respected owners. I am simply guiding the path in a strange direction.

I hope you enjoy.


	2. Chapter 1: The Leaves Change Color

The beginning of autumn was a beautiful time in Konoha, the village hidden in the leaves bloomed into a vibrant array of colors the likes of which could not be found anywhere else in the elemental nations. The leaves would change colors to match the sunset and eventually closer to winter they would fall creating a maelstrom of debris that would keep D-rank raking missions going for weeks. A young blonde boy walked through a heavily treed area deep in the heart of Konoha in a park where families played enjoying that last few weeks of warmth. While it was true that the Land of Fire never received much snow if any at all, but the temperature did plummet and it just wasn't sane to play when it did. His eyes were a deep and shocking blue that would put most sapphires to shame, and currently those eyes were peering out from around a tree as he watched a father and, what he could only assume was his son, spar. He envied their relationship and secretly he wanted a father as well, the old Hokage treated him kindly but as the adjective described the man was rather old, not to mention as Hokage he was very busy. He looked away from the two combatants and returned on his path unnoticed towards training grounds on the other side of the park.

Naruto was only six years old, and yet he had lived alone for a year now. When he had turned five the matriarch of the orphanage had sent him packing claiming, 'He was old enough to fend for himself now.' He couldn't say he was truly sad to leave the place, the adults were tyrants to him and the other children ganged up and bullied him. So after the slightly younger Naruto was forcibly ejected from the place the scared child did the only thing that seemed logical. He ran.

Why should he stay in this accursed village? Why would he want to? He was hated and spat at and on more than one occasion he was struck. The truly sad thing is Naruto didn't hate the villagers after all the hate, he subconsciously figured out it must have had a reason; other kids were not treated this way. He hated himself for… whatever it was he did. He was deep in the forest and scared it was night and he could hear all sorts of animals around him, there were a few chirps of birds, a sweet melody of crickets interrupted by the screeching of an owl. Then there was a growl, and the sound shook him to his core as fear crept up his spine.

Across the clearing was a boar, a wild and ferocious pig of all things. Once again he did the only thing his young mind could thing to do he ran, but this time he was followed. He ran through the brush sharp twigs scratching his face and arms as he ran. He could hear the beast behind him and to his anguish it was gaining on him. He tripped; of course he would trip now, and closed his eyes waiting to die. The next thing he knew was warmth, he dared open his eyes as wind rushed past his face. The first thing he saw was the ground flying below him. He turned his head to see what was holding him, it was a lean man with an ANBU mask baring a Dog design. Noticing that the boy was looking at him the man spoke in a soft warm voice, "The Hokage was most worried about you Naruto, you should not scare us like that." Naruto for his part noticed the use of, 'us' in the Dog ANBU's sentence and he felt safe for the first time in a long time. He let his head rest on the man's chest as they flew through the night and he closed his eyes and fell into a light sleep.

Naruto was awoken by an abrupt stop and his eyes slid open and he found himself in a familiar room, the Hokage's office. He was set down and he took to his feet wobbly at first but a steady hand on his back helped him regain his balance. "Thank you ANBU Dog." The ANBU merely nodded and stepped back into the corner. Nauto then looked towards the desk that took up most of the room and behind it sat the Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi. The boy put on a brave face before telling the man what had happened that day. The old man's face went from angry, to livid, to wrought with guilt and concern.

"Do not worry little Naruto, you will not have to go back there." The old Hokage picked the child up and hugged him getting a hard squeeze back. "You can stay with my family tonight and we will get you a place to live in the morning." He was about to Body Flicker to the Hokage compound but he paused looking at the Dog ANBU and inclined his head. "Well done Dog." And with that both he and the child were gone.

That was a year ago and now Naruto lived in a small apartment and was given a weekly stipend from the City to live on, in all actuality it was the rather wealthy Sarutobi that was paying for it all, and he did so happily. Things were still hard but now Naruto had a purpose, he swore he would one day become a great Ninja like the ANBU that saved him. Secretly the boy idolized the Dog ANBU and how he had saved him without so much as breaking a sweat. Another part of him deep inside knew he also wanted to be Hokage, the greatest ninja with a big heart. He smiled slightly not wanting to show too much emotion, he had read somewhere that ninjas were masters of hiding their emotions. So he made his way to the training fields.

Living alone and shunned by most of the village Naruto didn't have much to do so he trained, and trained a lot. He didn't have much instruction, and by not much that would mean zero. He would spy on other ninjas and practice what he saw, this lead to atrocious Frankenstein of a Taijutsu and disastrous attempts at molding Chakra. He however felt Chakra after trying to access it so he figured he was working well considering he was a self-taught six year old. Every once in a while as he trained the Dog ANBU would appear from nowhere and give him a tip or two from the shadows and just as fast he was gone. He was thankful and totally oblivious to the fact he was being followed. Still, most of the time he would sneak to other training grounds and spy as such he was getting rather adept at hiding despite the bright orange he wore. And it was on one of these spying excursions that fate decided to intervene.

He was watching a mother and her daughter, both ninjas judging by the headbands around their heads and the similar features. He caught the tail end of the mother's explanation. "And now you will be able to summon the Ninja Ferrets. Watch closely, and remember you need a bit of blood." The older of the two began to make hand signs very slowly along her daughter, and unwittingly Naruto, learn them easily. She then shouted "Summoning Jutsu" and slammed her hand on the forest floor. In a puff of smoke Naruto was stunned to see a Ferret standing there with a Leaf head band on. He slid back from the bush he was concealed in nearly shaking with excitement. He walked towards his training grounds unaware of the importance a summoning contract the mother had made the daughter sign beforehand.


End file.
